Though he be but smol, he is fierce!
by Reader115
Summary: A canon-verse Klance love story in which Keith is shrunk during battle, and Lance helps out by carrying smol Keith around on his shoulder.


It started like this. One second, he was shooting at sentries, and the next second he was on his ass on the cold metal floor of the Galra base due to an extremely rude shove from Keith.

Of course, from his new horizontal position, he got a front row seat to the shiny purple beam — that had previously been aimed for his chest — hitting Keith directly instead.

And then Keith disappeared.

Sort of.

I mean, he's not the science guy, so _disappeared_ is probably the wrong word. Regular-sized Keith disappeared anyway. And Lance was left staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at a tiny, _oh so very_ _smol Keith_ unconscious on the ground beside him.

* * *

 _Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit._

Lance's brain repeated the phrase on an unhelpful loop as he ran. Keith was so small now that Lance could carry him around with just one hand, although when he'd scooped the red paladin up off the ground after the beam hit, he'd used both hands if only to cut the jostling down to a minimum as he ran back to Blue. He'd cradled Keith close to his chest as he made the frantic announcement that something had happened to Keith, everyone needed to get out of there _now_ , and could Hunk and Yellow please pick up Red on their way back to the castle.

There'd been a lot of frantic yelling from the others, especially since Lance couldn't quite put into words what had happened to Keith. He did his best to assure them Keith was mostly fine —

"What the hell does _mostly_ mean, Lance?" Shiro had called out to him, the curse revealing his underlying turmoil that a member of his team — his own pseudo-little brother — had been hurt. "If he's fine, why isn't Keith talking?"

But how was he supposed to explain that Keith had been miniaturized? _Was this really happening? Like, this was a thing that could actually happen to them?_

So, instead, he just told everyone to meet him in the med bay as soon as possible, which is where they stood now, all staring down at an itty bitty and still unconscious red paladin. Keith's helmet had been carefully removed, but he remained otherwise in his equally shrunken paladin armor while Coran ran some scans.

"Anything?" Shiro asked after silence had filled the room for too many minutes.

Coran's response was a non-committal noise in his throat as he continued the scans, and Lance couldn't tell if that noise meant Coran was learning good news or bad news. But he was distracted away from trying to decipher Coran's facial expression as Shiro turned back to him in order to ask, for what was surely the fifth time, about the purple beam that had hit Keith.

"I don't know," Lance repeated with a frustrated shoulder shrug. "I didn't even see it coming. But it wasn't from a sentry, it was some kind of device in that room. And then, _zap,_ space-mouse-sized-Keith."

"Keith kept saying he thought we were walking into a trap," Hunk said, clearly feeling awful for not giving Keith's words the weight they obviously deserved.

"So this is their new weapon to defeat us?" Pidge turned to Allura. "Have you ever seen this before? Technology that can shrink a person? Coran?"

"I'm afraid not, number five, er, four."

"Hey!" Lance interjected. "It's not like its permanent." He tried to read Coran's face again and waited for the reassurance that this was a temporary problem. "Right?"

Coran sighed and set the scanners on the table beside Keith. "I'm afraid I don't know. The read-outs all say he's perfectly fine."

"But those scanners are just looking for injuries, correct?" Shiro asked, his brow furrowed with concern.

"So we can't just stick him in a healing pod?" Hunk added.

"Or a taffy puller?" Lance murmured. He leaned his elbows on the table and let his head drop into his hands while he ignored Shiro's _disapproving dad look._ With Coran's assessment, which amounted to nothing helpful, guilt and worry over Keith's current situation began to well up inside him.

Plus, _why_ Keith was small was one problem. The fact that he was still unconscious was another glaring issue entirely.

Lance lifted his head and eyed tiny Keith before saying with a quiet forcefulness, "Keith, _wake up_."

Then he quickly straightened where he stood as Keith did just that.

Purple eyes blinked open and they all watched as both of Keith's hands lifted to press at his temples as he sat up. His audience remained calm and quiet, at least until Keith glanced up and saw them all staring down at him. Then something close to panic filled Keith's eyes as he scrambled to his feet and pulled his bayard.

The next few moments included frantic shouts of explanations as everyone tried to talk over each other and assure Keith that he was safe on the castle ship. Lance figured he'd normally be right there with them, except that he found himself watching Keith closely, and was left wondering why no one else had noticed that Keith had dropped his sword in order to allow both hands to fly up and cover his ears.

"Stop! Stop!" Lance finally interjected, doing his best to keep his voice low while making sure everyone could hear him. An often overlooked skill that came from having a large, loud family whose members often forgot when a baby niece or nephew were visiting and trying to take a nap.

Thankfully, everyone listened and turned to Lance, who in turn pointed at Keith. "We're hurting his tiny ears."

Shiro looked frustrated, mainly with himself, for a moment before he leaned his elbows down on the table, doing his best to get closer to Keith's level before speaking in a softer voice.

"Sorry about that, Keith."

With the new quiet, Keith lowered his hands and stood straighter. He sent the lot of them disgruntled glances, but he took a few trusting steps towards Shiro and stared up at him.

"It appears that the Galra hit you with something that shrunk you. But you and Red are both safe on the ship, okay?"

Keith glanced from Shiro to Lance beside him, before his eyes moved around the table to take in everyone else. Finally, he nodded back to Shiro.

Then he opened his mouth to speak and everyone lost it once again. Because they were expecting Keith's voice, but instead were treated to what sounded like unintelligible squeaks.

A high-pitched noise escaped Lance, his own previous advice about everyone keeping the noise down to protect Keith's ears already forgotten. But Hunk, and even Allura, quickly joined in as they leaned down collectively to coo over tiny Keith and his attempts at speech.

"Looks like his voice box has been shrunk as well," Pidge said. She was doing her best not to smile. She was really _really_ trying…

Keith, in turn, glared up at them. And when that didn't work, he stomped a foot before retrieving his sword in order to point it threateningly in their direction.

All while yelling at them in continued squeaks.

"Oh my quiznack _, he's adorable_ ," Lance breathed out. "I'm knitting him a sweater."

Keith threw his sword at him. It went approximately three inches across the table.

"Okay, guys, give him space," Shiro finally said, using an arm to sweep Lance, Hunk, and Allura back into standing positions. He then used a finger and nudged Keith's sword back towards him.

"Are you feeling okay, Keith? Does anything hurt?" Coran asked, and Lance lost his smile when he realized Coran still looked worried.

Keith turned away from the rest of them in order to shake his head in Coran's direction.

"Okay, well that's some good news," Coran said with a smile that did little to make Lance feel better. "I'm not sure how this happened, Keith, but for now, why doesn't everyone get out of their armor and get some food before we regroup?"

Shiro nodded in agreement. "Good idea. We'll meet back up at dinner to start brainstorming ideas for how to fix" — he waved a hand in Keith's general direction — "this."

* * *

Lance was seated at the table eating with the others when Allura rejoined them. She had said she had some things that could help Keith out earlier, and had carried him off out of the med bay without another word.

Now, Lance watched as she lowered Keith down to stand on the table, along with a small bag, before seating herself. The rest of them had changed out of their paladin armor, and somehow Keith had been able to put on fresh clothes as well. He stood looking sheepish for a moment as he ran his hand down the front of the gold and white-threaded Altean-styled tunic before glancing back up around the table to see if anyone was looking at him.

(They all were. Smol Keith was adorable.)

"I had some dolls when I was younger," Allura said to the rest of them with a small smile. "I know the style is a little formal, but I thought it'd be nicer than being stuck in his armor all the time. And there's more in that bag."

"It looks nice." The words escaped Lance's mouth before he could think about it, and he fidgeted in his seat as Keith's head popped up to stare at him. "Here," he said, shoving a plate of tiny portions he'd made up for Keith in his direction.

Keith's eyes stayed locked on his face for a few moments, not that he was paying attention as he'd forced his own eyes back down to his food. But then Keith dug around in the bag Allura had left for him until he pulled out some doll-sized utensils before he crossed the table in order to sit down beside the plate Lance had made for him.

Coran joined them then, as well, followed by a few of their current Blade of Marmora castle guests. "I thought we should share our predicament," Coran announced as he continued to the head of the table to stand beside Allura.

Kolivan offered a greeting as he took a seat beside Shiro, while the two other BoM soldiers, Griffin and Prorax, both of whom were relatively new to the castle, sat on Kolivan's other side. And Lance realized Coran hadn't told the Blades what their current predicament was as he watched Kolivan stop speaking mid-sentence when he finally caught sight of Keith.

"They did it," Kolivan said quietly. "They actually did it."

"Wait, you knew they might try to shrink us?" Pidge questioned, sounding mildly irritated.

"Well, now he's definitely the tiniest Galra we've ever seen," Prorax said, practically nudging Griffin in the side as he spoke.

"Yes, our infants would eat him for breakfast," Griffin replied solemnly.

And it only took half a tick of seeing Keith's shoulders hunch uncomfortably before Lance jumped to his feet and shouted angrily across the table.

"He is still a Paladin of Voltron! He was shrunk in battle and he deserves your respect."

To their credit, the two Blades looked immediately shamed, and Lance listened as Kolivan switched to a language the rest of them did not understand in order to speak to his comrades. And although the rest of them didn't comprehend what he was saying, the tone of voice made it clear they were being reprimanded. The two stood, apologized to Keith and Princess Allura, and then quickly left the room.

Lance glared at their backs as they walked out before lowering himself back into his seat. He slowly glanced down at Keith, just to make sure he was no longer looking hunched or sad. And thankfully, Keith's shoulders were lowered in a relaxed position again. But Keith was also staring thoughtfully up at him, his large purple eyes full of an expression that Lance couldn't decipher. Then Keith's head jerked away as he turned in Kolivan's direction, and Lance realized the elder Blade had been trying to get his attention.

"I apologize for their reaction, Keith."

Keith nodded back to Kolivan, and then glanced Lance's way once more before he turned back to his food.

"So, you were about to tell us why tiny Keith isn't a surprise to you?" Hunk asked, while Pidge crossed her arms, still looking a touch annoyed. "Do you have any idea on the shrinking beam's range? Will it work on the lions?"

Kolivan glanced at Keith again. "We have heard rumors that Haggar was working on a shrinking technology," Kolivan said slowly. "Nothing confirmed."

"I'd consider it confirmed," Lance said harshly.

"Yes," Kolivan said with resigned sigh. "We'll send word right away to some of our undercover agents to obtain the technology. Maybe if you have it, you can reverse the effects?"

Pidge sent a small nod to Shiro, her irritation abating as she considerd the urgent task at hand. She wished she could be a little more enthusiastic about it, but she'd never faced anything like this before, and the seriousness of what could go wrong if she made a mistake in reconfiguring such technology…She glanced down at tiny Keith where he sat at the table.

"It's the best idea we have for now," Shiro said, resting a hand on Pidge's shoulder in reassurance as he sent his own nod to Kolivan.

"In the meantime, the Galra may be well aware that their plan worked, and that we are down at least one paladin and therefore unable to form Voltron," Allura said. "We'll have to be diligent in our efforts to remain clear of them for now. However, we're continuing the mission. We're currently on course for a nearby system for an alliance meeting."

"I'll get started on my part now," Kolivan said as he rose from his seat.

"Keep us updated," Shiro said, rising from his seat as well. "I think we'll save the rest of today's debriefing for tomorrow. I suggest we all rest for the remainder of tonight."

"Speaking of rest, Keith, I believe I also had a doll bed that I could pull down for —"

Keith's eyes widened and he squeaked in what Lance could only describe as indignation.

Lance chuckled as Shiro explained to the princess that Keith was _politely_ declining her offer.

"Its not like you can climb into your own bed, Keith," Pidge pointed out.

Shiro placed his elbows back on the table and leaned in towards Keith again. "Look, Keith, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I think you're going to have to stick with someone." Shiro sent his most sympathetic look in Keith's direction and did his best not to flinch at the angry glare Keith was sending back his way. Apparently, even at a tiny level, Keith's death glares remained super effective.

"Dude, Shiro's right. With those tiny legs, it would take you, like, eighteen hundred vargas to walk yourself from here to your room," Hunk added with his own sympathetic grimace.

"And that's assuming you don't break any bones just getting down off this table," Pidge added.

Keith stomped his foot and yelled something in his tiny voice.

"Is that getting cuter to anyone else?" Lance whispered as he and everyone leaned in, doing their best to interpret what sounded mostly like tiny squeaks.

They gave up after a few moments and stood upright again as they sent glances to each other around the table. They were fairly sure they knew what Keith was trying to say anyway.

"Tiny, angry Keith," Lance whispered with a fond smile. He began to prod a finger in Keith's direction, but yanked his hand back when Keith's bayard suddenly appeared and he took a swing towards Lance's finger with his sword. "No, _bad Keith_. I don't want a paper cut, dude."

Shiro did his best to cover his laugh with a cough. The look of betrayal from Keith told him he didn't do a great job.

"I'll keep him with me," Lance offered. "I can set him up in my room."

"Lance, we don't know how long he's going to be small like this —"

"Plus, where exactly is he going to sleep?"

"And we can take turns, its not —"

Shiro sighed heavily. "Maybe I should take him?"

" _No_ ," Lance interjected so quickly that Keith's head popped up to stare at him again.

"I mean, you're not, like, the quietest member of the team, dude," Hunk said. "Remember his tiny ears?"

"And sticking one-on-one with each other for extended periods of time likely just increases the probability that he's going to want to stab you," Pidge added with a grin.

Shiro waved a hand back and forth quickly in protest. "Don't say probability, you know that —"

"It's an 81% probability," Slav said, poking his head into the room with a wicked grin in Shiro's direction.

Lance actively fought with his face, doing his best not openly grin when he saw Shiro's obvious eye twitch.

But after Slav ducked back out of the doorway, Lance waved off the others' concerns. "Look guys, its fine. I got him." He glanced down at Keith, and found the tiny paladin's brows furrowed as he frowned up at all of them. "Also, he doesn't like us talking about him like he's not here," he added.

Keith's previously crossed arms dropped to his sides and his face filled with surprise.

Lance lifted an eyebrow at him. "What? I've got tons of experience with babies."

Which was not the thing to say because Keith stomped over to where Lance's hand rested on the table and kicked one of his fingers.

"Ow!" Lance jerked his hand away and shook off the minor pain. "Okay, no, I just mean I have experience babysitting — stop! Don't kick me again! I've had to learn what tiny people who can't speak, _because maybe they were babies_ , needed just by their expressions alone."

Keith glare softened slightly at that, as he seemed to consider Lance's explanation.

"I promise not to call it babysitting again if you come hang out with me," Lance said. But then a wicked grin filled his face as he spoke in a purposefully condescending tone, "I only mentioned it so you'd know you'll be in the experienced hands of someone who is an expert at taking care of small beans who are too tiny to take care of themselves."

"Pretty sure that's the definition of babysitting," Pidge murmured.

Keith's tiny hands bunched into fists.

"Okay, well if you want some help, let us know," Shiro said. "The rest of us will always be available to help babys — er, help Keith out with what he needs."

Keith threw his hands up in the air and shouted angry squeaks in Shiro's direction.

"Well, at least now he's not just mad at me," Lance said with another grin. Then he crossed his arms down on the table and rested his chin on them, doing his best to get closer to Keith's level. "Look, Keith," he whispered. "It's my fault you're like this, so let me help, okay?"

Lance watched as Keith looked surprised for a moment before his tiny eyebrows furrowed again and he opened his mouth, looking for all intents and purposes like someone who was about to argue. Lance should know, he and Keith spent a lot of their time arguing.

"Just let me help you," he whispered out again before Keith could start squeaking at him.

Keith's tiny eyes moved back and forth across his face, as if he was trying to read something in Lance's expression. Seemingly satisfied, he finally took a few steps in Lance's direction.

Lance grinned and reached both hands towards Keith, ready to scoop him up, but paused before he got too close. "You're not gonna stab me, right?"

Keith shrugged one of his shoulders, but Lance could see the smirk Keith was trying to hide.

Deciding it would be safer to let Keith come to him, Lance set a hand down on the table, and waited for Keith to climb up into his palm.

"Keith and Lance sleepover time!" Lance announced as he grabbed Keith's new bag of clothes and moved towards the door.

"You're sure this is a good idea?" Hunk called out after him.

Lance froze for a second and glanced at Keith, who was currently clinging to his thumb, before looking back at Hunk. Based on the fact that everyone else in the room was still involved in separate conversations, Lance was thankful no one else knew Hunk well enough to recognize his _Lance-are-you-sure-this-is-good-for-your-sanity_ voice.

"It's gonna be great," he called back to Hunk with a salute thrown in for good measure, desperate to get out of there before anyone — especially Keith — could read too much into Hunk's question and get suspicious.

Because how could this be anything but a good idea?

* * *

Okay, so this was not one of Lance's best ideas. And was also likely not good for his sanity.

Apparently Allura's doll clothes didn't include anything like pajamas, so when Lance came out of his bathroom after washing his face and changing his own clothes, he found Keith sitting on his spare pillow, wearing just his usual black t-shirt and his boxers, both of which Lance assumed he'd had on under his armor when he'd been shrunk. He looked sleepy and soft and cozy, and he blinked up at Lance as Lance gingerly sat on the bed, doing his best not to jostle tiny Keith as he settled himself down under his blanket.

"Comfy?" he asked as he offered a corner of his blanket over to Keith.

Keith yawned as he accepted the offer and _holy hell_ how was Lance supposed to sleep and not just stare at how cute he was curled up under the blanket like that all night?

"Okay, so just in case you're worried about being squished, know that I sleep on my back, and I don't move around all that much during the night. And, uh, your pillow bed is close enough to my ears that if you need anything, just shout and I'm sure it'll wake me up, okay?"

Keith nodded in understanding, and then closed his eyes as he pulled the blanket all the way up to his chin. And like Keith had previously claimed way back at the beginning of their lives as paladins, once his head hit the pillow, he was fast asleep. Lance chewed on his lower lip as he stared down at him. Keith was too cute for his own good on a normal day, but this? Teeny tiny smol Keith asleep in his bed?

The smile fell off his face a few moments later, however, as he remembered that Keith was small because he'd been shrunk while saving Lance's ass during that mission. And that Keith surely hated being dependent on him for basic things like food or getting around the castle. Not to mention the whole bathroom situation they'd worked out. Plus, there was no way he'd currently be sleeping in the same damn bed with Lance if he was regular-sized.

Lance frowned as the guilt he'd felt in the med bay earlier returned in full now that he was really faced with the major lifestyle changes Keith had had forced upon him.

Eager for a distraction, he sat up slowly so as to not disrupt Keith, and pulled out some of the knitting supplies he'd found the last time they were at the space mall. At the time, he'd shook off _the look_ Hunk had given when he'd bought red yarn. The yarn color was just a random coincidence, he told himself now, as he let himself get lost in counting the number of times he pulled loops around his thumb while eyeballing how long each sleeve would need to be.

Almost a varga passed like that before he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. He glanced down at Keith and then raised an eyebrow in curiosity as Keith appeared to tuck his legs up against his chest, making the tiny Red Paladin appear even smaller. Hesitantly, and as gently as he could, he pressed the back of one finger against Keith's forehead, and then hummed unhappily when he felt how cold Keith's skin was.

His current knitting project wasn't going to be of any use yet, so he set it aside and then slid from his bed to see what else he had that could help keep tiny Keith warm. He grabbed his jacket, but stopped in his tracks when he saw something that might be even more appropriately sized.

* * *

"So, why is he yelling at you?" Shiro asked at the breakfast table the next morning.

"Is he?" Lance asked, his tone full of false innocence while his eyes stayed purposefully away from Keith as he took another bite of food goo. He'd given Keith a plate with some goo and even a small piece of something that was bread-like, and thought maybe Keith should be more focused on eating and less focused on squeaking angrily up at him.

"Yes he is," Pidge said with a small grin. "What did you do to him?"

Lance swallowed his bite and finally glanced down at Keith, Keith who stood with crossed arms and a glare directed up at him. "Your little nose was all red, okay? You were freezing, dude. How about, _wow Lance, thanks for the extra layer_?"

Keith next squeak had a definite growl-like tone edged into it.

"Hey, it was a clean sock, okay?"

"You gave him a sock to sleep with?"

"A _clean_ sock," Lance repeated. "Personally, I think it's pretty brilliant. Like a sleeping bag," he said with a grin aimed at Keith. "You warmed up after that, so _you're welcome_."

Keith appeared to be muttering something — there was absolutely no noise to confirm that, but the look on his face told Lance he was better off not being able to hear him — as Keith finally sat down on the table and began to eat.

"Morning!" Hunk said cheerfully as he joined them at the table. "How's tiny Keith do — oh my goodness, where did he get that sweater?"

Lance beamed down at Keith, who glanced quickly up at him in return before jerking a tiny thumb in his direction in response to Hunk's question.

" _Sweater paws_!" Hunk cooed.

Keith may have been upset to find himself cuddled up in one of Lance's socks earlier, but he didn't fight him about wearing the sweater Lance had knit. Lance had left it for Keith to find on his pillow bed, and as he'd headed to the bathroom that morning, he'd subtly watched Keith's fingers run gently over the material before he pulled it on over his head. And, yeah, maybe Lance had noticed that the sleeves were a little on the long side, but he hadn't told Keith how adorable it was, mainly because Keith had already been grumpy about the sock business.

But, yeah, the sweater paws were ridiculously cute on the tiny red paladin.

"How are you feeling this morning, Keith?" Coran asked. "Any aches or anything?"

Keith shook his head.

"He seems extra cold, though," Lance offered. Even now, Keith's tiny nose was still a little pink.

"Well, his body has so little surface area now," Coran said, a finger and thumb twirling the end of his moustache as he appeared to think through this new information. "He likely requires a few days to allow his internal temperature regulation system to readjust."

"In the meantime, the sweater was a very practical and thoughtful gesture, Lance," Shiro said while sending a grin in Keith's direction. Keith met Shiro's eyes for only a moment before he ducked his head and went back to eating.

"Yeah, very practical and very _red_ ," Hunk hummed as he filled a bowl for breakfast.

Lance slouched in his seat and shot Hunk his best, _Please not now, dude_ face.

Hunk responded with a shrug of his shoulders and a knowing smile.

* * *

Lance fought back a yawn at the dinner table. They had four officials from the planet they were currently orbiting onboard for an alliance meeting, and he was supposed to be charming and helpful right now. Instead, he was feeling bored.

Plus, the officials kept asking if they could see Voltron, and were wondering why the red paladin wasn't attending the alliance dinner.

Lance couldn't blame them. He wished the red paladin was here as well.

He was listening to Shiro explain that Keith was currently busy, when he noticed Keith — _riding on the back of one of the space mice_ — enter the room. He kept perfectly still as his eyes watched the mouse run under the table where they all sat, and then did his best not to flinch as he felt something poke him in the foot.

He twitched his foot, trying to shoo the two of them away, and Keith's only response was to poke him again.

"Will you all excuse me?" Lance asked as diplomatically as he could, even tacking on a short half-bow. He got a couple questioning looks from the others as he stood, but given that he was currently Keith's main _caretaker_ , they likely assumed it was related to Keith, and no one asked where he was going or demanded that he stay.

He counted himself lucky as he left the room, although once he was in the hallway, Keith was no where to be seen. So he wandered towards the kitchen, worried that maybe Keith was hungry. The kitchen was deserted, however, or at least he couldn't _see_ Keith in there.

He moved on and thankfully found Keith in the next room, sitting on the floor next to two of the mice, all three of them staring down at a tablet.

"Hey, fun-sized Keith."

Lance plopped himself down on the nearest couch and grinned as Keith squawked in protest.

"What's wrong with fun-sized?" Lance didn't even try to hide his amusement as he plucked Keith off the ground and pulled both him and the tablet up on the couch. "You know, like those little bite-sized candies they give out at Halloween? Fun size?"

Keith's glare turned flat as he exhaled a heavy sigh that Lance could _almost_ hear.

"Anyway, thanks for breaking me out of that meeting. What's up? You need something?"

Keith offered a small smile before pointing to the tablet. Lance lifted it and checked out what Keith and the mice had been staring at.

"Hmm, okay." Lance set the tablet flat on the couch cushion between them and worked with Keith to figure out how the game was supposed to be played. He set it up for two players, and while he used his finger to swipe his game pieces around, he outright chuckled every single time Keith jumped from one spot to another on the tablet's screen to do his part.

Even in this, a game meant for fun, Keith's brows were furrowed in concentration, and he put all his effort in moving fast enough to keep up with the falling pieces they were supposed to save.

He got so distracted watching Keith that he missed his turn, and had to deal with Keith squawking at him in irritation.

"Sorry, sorry," he laughed, not even trying to sound apologetic as he took his turn. "You know, the next time you complain about any screeching from me, _which I do not do_ , by the way, I'm going to remind you about these cute squeaking noises so hard, my dude."

Keith ignored him as he literally jumped into his turn, and once again Lance was struck by the determined look on his tiny face.

"You're just so committed. You throw your all right into everything you do." He kept his eyes pinned to the tablet as he spoke, feeling a tad shy, and completely missed the way Keith's tiny face turned a shade of pink as he finished up his turn.

They continued to play until Keith finally tired himself out and plopped down to a seated position beside the tablet. Lance let his own head rest propped up on one of his arms, and he sent a mischievous grin down to Keith.

"You're really lucky my nieces aren't here," he said, "especially since you were offended by Allura's offer of a baby doll bed to sleep in. They have so much Barbie stuff. Cars and clothes and houses. They'd make me sit with them and try to get me to play. They'd _definitely_ be all over you to play with them."

Half of Keith's mouth quirked up at the idea, and Lance continued.

"They'd get mad, though, because I'd drive a car off the couch in a stunt that always involved a crash landing and lot of obnoxious noises and screaming."

A small squeak escaped Keith, what Lance was going to accept as a laugh whether Keith would ever admit it or not. It had his own smile widening, at least until the next thought occurred to him.

"Actually, we've been out here, what? Two years?" His smile faded as he spoke. "You'd probably be in the clear if they were here. They're probably not into dolls as much now, huh?"

Keith's brow furrowed in thought, and Lance continued before he could try to respond.

"I wonder if they all still have family game night, actually." His head dropped off his hand and he let himself fall to lie on his back on the couch. "With everyone's schedules, it could be hard to fit in, but we got together at least once a month for a marathon of board games. My sister and I always fought over which game to play first, cause she liked Life, but I liked Monopoly, even though my Uncle Arthur would cheat every time."

He laughed and glanced down at Keith, who was still sitting and staring up at him, looking for all intents and purposes like he was really listening, like he wanted Lance to continue.

So he did. For the first time since he'd boarded this castle ship, he sat and talked about his family. He talked until his voice grew hoarse, all the feelings and worry he'd been carrying around rushing out and crashing down on his tiny audience. But Keith didn't shy away from any of it. He offered smiles and eye rolls, and at some point climbed up onto Lance's chest to offer some empathy with his proximity.

It's where Hunk found them later, with Keith curled up asleep on Lance's chest. He covered them with a blanket on his way by.

* * *

"Come on my little shoulder devil," Lance sang as he lowered a hand to the table for Keith's convenience, and then laughed at Keith's new glare as he begrudgingly climbed onto Lance's hand. "Well, you didn't like it when I called you a parrot and offered you a cracker, either." Lance said as he placed Keith up on his shoulder. "And there's no way you qualify as a shoulder _angel_ , so, _hey_ —"

Lance squirmed immediately as Keith dove into his shirt collar and slid down, hands squeezing the skin of Lance's side as he went.

"Stop that! _Keith_!"

He tugged half his shirt up and threw his hip out, trying and failing to glare and not laugh at the tiny jackass who was currently clinging to one of his jean belt loops with one arm while using his free hand to continue to poke Lance in the side.

"I give, I give! _Stop_!"

Keith sent Lance a warning glare as he retracted his hand.

Lance plucked Keith off his belt loop and glared down at him. "You know how hard it is to control flailing arms when being tickled? You're lucky you weren't knocked across the room, you tiny jerk."

He watched Keith smirk up at him.

"Ohho, you don't think I'd knock you across the room?"

Keith crossed his arms, smug, as his smirk grew wider.

Lance did his best to keep up his own glare, but big or small, he was weak against Keith's stupid smirk, especially when it was aimed directly at him.

"Fine," he conceded as he placed Keith back on his shoulder and continued in their original direction. " _Maybe_ I wouldn't."

Pidge, Hunk, Shiro, Allura, and Coran stared after them as Lance walked out of the dining hall.

"What the _quiznak_ did we just witness?" Pidge asked.

"Um, they're bonding and learning new communication skills?" Shiro offered.

"I don't know, I kind of feel like I'd like to unsee all that," Pidge announced.

Allura looked back and forth between them with a look of confusion. "Do you believe this is too much of a burden for Lance?"

"Good luck getting Lance away from Keith," Hunk muttered while Shiro simultaneously said, "Good luck separating Keith from Lance."

They shot meaningful (and long-suffering) looks to each other across the table and went back to their food.

* * *

"Kolivan was able to get the shrinking tech to Pidge earlier," Hunk said. He was currently mixing up a batter of what Lance hoped would end up as cookies. "She's already started working on reversing it."

Keith looked happily up at Lance from where he stood on the kitchen counter, clearly expecting a positive reaction from Lance as well. So Lance forced a smile on his face, and missed the way Keith's eyes narrowed in response to his fake smile, as he asked Hunk a few more questions about how long he thought it would take Pidge to work it out.

And then he reminded himself — again — that while he was enjoying their bonding moments, this wasn't a fun experience for Keith. And that Keith had every right to be happy over this piece of _good_ news.

* * *

"What's up, guys?" Lance sang out as he and Shiro entered the main lounge together.

He'd spent the past two vargas enduring a hand-to-hand combat training session with just Shiro, and for the first time since the whole shrinking incident, had found himself missing regular-sized Keith. Sparring with their _training is serious business space dad_ had only served to remind him that while Keith took training seriously as well, Keith almost always succumbed to Lance's attempts to lighten the mood, the result being that the two of them usually joked their way through sparring matches together. He'd learned a long time ago that his best chance to see Keith smile happened in the training room at the end of a session, when Keith was worn out, but relaxed and slightly happy-drunk off all those workout endorphins.

(Of course, realizing he was missing regular-sized Keith was a whole separate thought process he was trying to avoid. He had enough going on with this situation as it was, _thanks_.)

He'd left Keith with Hunk and Pidge earlier, and could feel how eager he was to get back to him. He practically skipped his way down the stairs behind Shiro as they made their way to the center of the room where Hunk and Pidge were currently sitting on the floor.

"Oh, well, we uh —"

Pidge cut Hunk off before he could continue. "Shiro, you said Keith was bored while the rest of us trained, and that we should see about setting him up with a challenge."

"Great, were you able to create a — _what am I looking at_?"

Shiro's frantic tone of voice had Lance speeding up so he could see what had their leader so upset. And he missed out on Pidge's follow-up explanation because he was too busy staring down at tiny Keith, whose purple eyes were currently narrowed in a single-minded _battle focus_ from his position atop Platt, the largest of the mice — Lance had started paying more attention to the mice's names the moment Keith had started using them as tiny taxis whenever Lance was too busy to carry him.

One of Keith's hands held his tiny paladin shield, while the other hand was wrapped tightly around a _javelin_. There was a loud squeak, likely what equaled to an adorable war cry from Keith, before Platt charged forward.

"Keith!" Lance exclaimed as another mouse, he was pretty sure it was Chuchule, charged just as quickly from the opposite direction with Plachu on his back — and Lance would ask later how they had managed to deck out a mouse with a shield and a javelin. "Are they actually _jousting_ right now?" Lance asked as he spun around and stared wide-eyed at Hunk and Pidge.

And while he stood in shock, Shiro didn't hesitate to move around Pidge and drop his arm to the ground as a barrier between the two opposing pairs. Chuchule changed course before hitting Shiro's arm, allowing him to slow down at a reasonable pace and not lose his mouse brother. Platt, however, just full on stopped, leaving Keith to fly over his head and land on the ground in front of him.

Lance scooped Keith up in his hands following that unexpectedly harsh landing, and lifted him close enough to eye him for damage.

"Are you okay?"

Keith answered with angry squeaks and a finger pointing dramatically back down on the ground.

"Don't yell at me," Lance replied, his voice higher than he would've liked. "You and the mice were going at each other with pointy sticks!"

"When I said maybe you could create something, I meant maybe you could build him something similar to the gladiator!" Shiro exclaimed as he rose to his feet. "Not give him a javelin!"

"Well, you didn't specify that," Pidge muttered as she stood and stretched.

"You better hope Allura doesn't find out you had her mice jousting."

"They were all for it!" Pidge said.

"They even signed waivers," Hunk offered, turning his tablet around to show tiny paw prints on the screen.

" _Sweet quiznak_ ," Shiro muttered with a hand pressed to the bridge of his nose.

Lance returned his attention to Keith, who he found standing in the center of his palms, little arms crossed and an outright pout on his face.

"You're ridiculous," Lance whispered down to him.

Keith's eyes moved back up to Lance's face. And tiny or not, Lance could easily see the grin pulling at Keith's lips.

* * *

"Okay, since jousting was apparently a _bad idea_ ," Hunk mocked as he joined Lance and Keith in the lounge the next day, "I created something new to help keep you busy, Keith"

He stopped in front of where they sat on the couch, smile wide as he slowly pulled something from behind his back in order to place it on the cushion next to Keith. And just like that, the game Lance and Keith had been playing was abandoned as Keith began to excitedly circle the toy hovercraft, running his fingers over the wings and peering in at the dashboard.

"I'm not sure Keith wants to just sit in a toy, buddy," Lance said.

"Please," Hunk replied flatly, doing his best to sound offended. "This is no toy. The engine has something equivalent to jet propulsion. Plus, I've got a sensor on there that will activate all of the main doors so they'll open when he gets near them."

The way Keith's face lit up as he listened to Hunk filled Lance with equal amounts of dread and warmth.

"But is it safe?" Lance asked, poking a finger at one of the wings, as he watched Keith hop in the pilot seat and pull on the familiar red paladin helmet Hunk had left there. "I mean, I'm sure your engine work is fantastic, Hunk, but its still basically a toy, right? How do we even know —"

The sound of the engine coming to life cut off his nervous ramblings as Keith went from inspecting the gears one second to having the craft lifted a few inches off the couch the next second.

Lance sighed and internally cursed Keith's natural talent for flying things — apparently _all things_ — especially when Keith shot him and Hunk a quick grin before he took off and Lance was left just staring as the aircraft zoomed out of the room.

"You're sure that thing is safe?" Lance asked quietly.

Hunk clapped him on the shoulder. "As safe as the craft he flew back in the desert, anyway. He'll be fine." He offered Lance an overly cheerful grin. "Plus, now you've got some of your free time back."

Lance nodded slowly, not quite feeling any happy relief to have some of his personal freedom back.

"It's just, uh—" Hunk seemed to deflate a bit himself as he watched Lance sadly eye the door Keith had flown through. "You know, Pidge is going to de-shrink him at some point, and maybe it'd be better to have some separation? You know, before you get too attached?"

Lance scoffed. "So, to protect me, you gave tiny Keith a dangerous aircraft?"

"It's not dangerous!" Hunk protested. "And, hey, remember that old saying, if you love something, let it fly away in a tiny hovercraft?"

"Nope. Hundred percent sure that's not how that goes."

"Come on, we'll hang out."

* * *

Lance only saw glimpses of Keith on two occasions for the rest of the day. Once, when he was on his way to the kitchen for a snack — he'd tried to call out to Keith, but he had already been pretty far down the next hallway and was soon out of sight around a corner. And, the second time, he and Hunk had been on their way to the lounge to watch a movie, but had both frozen in place when Keith had flown by with what looked like Chulatt in the passenger seat.

"Between giving them rides and the times I've seen him slipping them food, those mice are really going to miss tiny Keith," Hunk chuckled as he continued towards the lounge again.

Lance frowned in the direction Keith had flown, angry that he was actually jealous of a mouse. Keith hadn't shown up for dinner, and Lance had let Hunk explain on his own exactly why Keith wasn't there to Shiro and Allura. Unfortunately, Shiro didn't seem all that worried about Keith flying solo through the castle in a small toy. Leaving Lance to poke at his food and wonder why now, of all times, Shiro decided not to be overprotective about their safety.

After his and Hunk's movie was over, Lance headed to his bedroom. He was low-key listening for the sound of the hovercraft's engine as he made his way there, but didn't hear the hum at all.

Really, it had only been a couple hours, but he'd missed tiny Keith. He liked the way Keith's eyes lit up, honestly fascinated as Lance told him stories about his family. He liked the way Keith's nose scrunched up as they tried to beat the puzzle games on the tablet. And he had missed the easy way Keith sat on his shoulder as they walked through the castle, especially since Keith often tugged on strands of his hair to keep himself steady, sending unintentional shivers down Lance's back.

And with Keith's inability to really talk, Lance had been watching his expressions closer than ever, which meant he'd also had a front row seat to watching Keith's small smiles appear when Shiro began one of his dad speeches, or when Coran described one of his former pirate outfits. Small smiles that Lance had never noticed before, even though he was realizing Keith had probably always found some amusement in these occurrences.

And Keith seemed to notice Lance watching, because those small private smiles soon became shared smiles, as Keith would glance Lance's way with a grin as Slav joined them for dinner and made sure to sit next to Shiro.

It was like he had private jokes with Keith now. And he liked it.

He flopped down on his bed and stared up at his ceiling with a sigh. Even if he missed Keith, Keith obviously deserved to have this newfound freedom and independence. So, he told himself to go to sleep, and was practically there when he heard several thumps on his bedroom door.

He rolled out of bed and unlocked his door in order to slide it open, just before Keith was about to ram the front of his aircraft into the door once again. Only with the door opened for him, he flew right in and Lance watched as Keith landed the craft on the end of his bed. Keith jumped out then, pulled off his helmet, tossed it in the pilot's seat, and then ran his hands through his hair a few times.

Lance slowly approached his own bed and watched as Keith pulled off the tunic he'd worn that day and then shucked off his pants as well. He dug through his clothes pile, wearing only his boxers, until he found his favorite t-shirt, which was pulled on before he climbed up on his pillow bed and took a seat.

Only then did he glance up at Lance with a confused raise of his eyebrow, probably since Lance was still standing awkwardly by the side of his bed.

"I just didn't think you were sleeping here tonight," Lance said slowly.

Keith squeaked something up in his direction before he cut himself off and looked more frustrated than ever at his inability to speak. But that was followed by an unsure expression, as he slowly stood back up, and pointed towards Lance's door in question.

"No, no, no," Lance said, throwing up his hands like stop signs. He finally sat down on his bed next to Keith. "I want you here, I mean," — he could feel his heat spread across his face — "you're more than welcome to sleep in here. I just haven't seen you all day, so I wasn't sure what you'd been up to?" He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, and cringed slightly when he could feel the heat there as well.

But then he glanced down at Keith again and watched as Keith slowly sat back down on his temporary bed. He tilted his head in interest as he kept his eyes on Lance, and Lance swore he saw the corner of Keith's mouth quirk upwards.

"So, uh, did you have fun today?"

Keith nodded and let himself fall onto his back. He rested a hand behind his head and appeared to sigh happily up towards the ceiling.

Lance leaned over and picked up the little hovercraft Keith had left at the end of his bed. He peered into the cockpit and then huffed out an impressed swear. "Hunk put working gauges in here and everything, huh?"

Keith squeaked out what sounded like a laugh, and Lance's head jerked around impossibly fast to look at him, eager to catch the smile he was sure would be there. He wasn't disappointed.

He moved the hovercraft over to his desk, sure that Keith wouldn't appreciate him unintentionally kicking it off the bed in the middle of the night.

"I'm glad you had fun," he said as he lowered himself to his own pillow without meeting Keith's eyes. "I'm sure it was more fun than you've had since you were shrunk, huh?"

He heard what he recognized as an angry squeak from Keith, but still didn't look over at him.

"Look, honestly, Keith, I'm really sorry about all this. I know that beam was supposed to hit me."

More loud angry squeaks from Keith finally had him turning his head towards the tiny paladin, and he found Keith on his feet, throwing his arms around in clear exasperation.

Despite his effort to stop it, half of his mouth curved up as he watched. "What's that? I can't understand you over the sounds of you being adorable."

Keith lowered his hands to his sides and stomped a foot in the pillow, but apparently didn't account for how fluffy the pillow was since the soft material yielded easily under his foot's wrath, and he almost fell over. He managed to stay upright, though, and glared up at Lance once he was sure he wasn't going to fall, as if daring Lance to laugh.

Lance laughed anyway. "Quiznak, Keith. You realize the stomping is pretty counterproductive to convincing me you're _not_ adorable, right?"

He watched a small pout form on Keith's face, and chuckled again.

"Fine, fine." Lance decided to give him a break. "I have a feeling you're trying to tell me this isn't my fault."

Keith met his eye again and nodded.

"Okay, but if I wasn't in the way of that beam, you wouldn't have had to save me."

Keith threw his arms back up and squeaked angrily at him again.

"Look, that part is true, though. No — _stop squeaking at me_. Let me just say thank you, alright?"

Keith went silent again, and Lance watched his brows furrow as he seemed to consider Lance. Finally, he nodded again, and Lance couldn't resist gently nudging a finger in Keith's side.

"Thanks, tiny pushy Keith."

Keith had to use both of his hands in order to push Lance's finger away, but Lance caught the way Keith's lips were fighting a smile as he shoved at him.

"Well, I'm still sorry you got shrunk, but, uh, this has been kinda nice. I mean, I cradled you in my arms when the beam hit you. You can't actually argue with everything I say. It's been good all around."

Keith's amused expression fell flat as Lance spoke, and he quickly dove for his bayard before charging at Lance with his sword.

"No, Keith!" Lance laughed and quickly rolled off his bed to avoid being stabbed in the shoulder.

He let himself land on his stomach on the floor, and then continued to laugh as he felt Keith's small body land on his back. But then he felt Keith scramble straight for his head.

"No, wait!" Lance yelped as he realized Keith was about to go at his hair with his sword, leaving him with who knows what kind of crazy haircut in the back of his head. He couldn't roll and risk hurting Keith, nor did he want to swat at him and risk a minor stab wound to his fingers, so he stayed where he was on the floor and did his best to stop laughing. "I take it back, I'm really upset you can't talk. Lots of upset happening in regards to the whole squeaking thing!"

Keith peered around his head in an attempt to see his face, loosening his hold on the brown strands he'd previously grabbed as a threat.

Unfortunately, Lance couldn't help but to tease him. "I've been really missing all your daily jokes." More laughter burst up out of his chest with his words, shaking his shoulders. It was enough to knock Keith off balance, although he retaliated by tightening his hold on Lance's hair to remain upright. And it wasn't until Lance caught sight of the sword swinging from the corner of his eye, that he swallowed down the laughter once more and called out to Keith again, "No, no, I'm sorry. Don't cut my hair! _Keith_!"

Keith seemed to consider his request for a tortuously long time before he let go of Lance's hair and walked over to his shoulder so he could hop down to the ground. Finally free to move without the risk of harming Keith, Lance pushed himself off from the ground and climbed back into bed before unceremoniously grabbing Keith and placing him back on his own pillow bed.

"Okay, still," Lance continued with his earlier thoughts as he watched Keith toss his bayard aside before sitting and pulling his knees up to allow his elbows a place to rest, "you were kind of forced to hang out with me, but I have…enjoyed it."

Keith ducked his head at that, and Lance moved his eyes to his ceiling as he suddenly wondered if he'd said too much, or if he shouldn't have been so insistent that he be the one Keith spent all his time with.

"Hey, Keith, has this been okay?" He slowly moved his gaze back down to Keith's tiny face, which was peeking up at him through thick black bangs. "I mean, it's not been like torture to chill with me, right?"

Keith's head tilted with a slight look of confusion. He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it. Because his mouth closed as he rose to his feet and hopped from his pillow to Lance's shoulder. Lance held perfectly still as he took in the look of determination on Keith's face as he approached. And, while he wondered why Keith needed to be closer in order to shake his head yes or no, he suddenly felt Keith yank on the collar of his shirt as he lifted it up and then slid inside like it was a sleeping bag. He rested his head right below Lance's collarbone and tugged the shirt around his own small shoulders.

Lance forced his breathing not to accelerate — _thank you, lungs_ — but could do nothing about the way his skin was going hot, or how his fingers twitched with a need to wrap one hand around Keith's back to reassure himself that he was really there.

"Are you sleeping there?" he finally managed to whisper after a few moments of slight panic over just how loud his damn heart was beating — there was no way Keith couldn't hear it from where he was currently cuddled into his chest.

He thought he felt Keith nod as he pulled more of Lance's shirt around himself like a blanket.

"Okay," he whispered again as something close to pure joy filled him at the thought that this was Keith's way of showing him that he had been enjoying their time together as well. He shifted his head in order to glance down at Keith with a grin. "But, maybe you should buy me dinner first."

And then, holy shit, forget the pure joy feelings from a moment ago.

Because watching Keith duck his face under the shirt collar-turned blanket — as he tried _and_ _failed_ to suppress his laughter — truly filled Lance with pure joy. The purest of pure. Nothing had ever been as pure as this moment right here.

He couldn't contain the fondness in his voice as he spoke. "Since you turned me into your bed for the night, you realize I can actually _feel_ you laughing, right?"

Keith quit hiding at that and lifted himself up on an elbow to smile at Lance. _Really_ smile with teeth and dimples and bright purple eyes — basically _the_ _works_. The works being the good stuff that pulled at Lance's chest and made his own smile grow even wider on his face.

And Lance had been getting away with calling Keith adorable in his current tiny condition. But, _ay por dios_ , this boy was cute. He suddenly wondered how he was going to refrain himself from voicing it when Keith was no longer small, and realized he'd better enjoy these opportunities while he could.

"Goodnight, tiny adorable Keith."

Keith's eyebrows furrowed in what Lance was fairly certain was a mock glare, before he rolled his eyes at Lance and lowered his head again to sleep.

Lance smiled at his ceiling as warmth continued to fill his chest. That pure joy was good stuff.

* * *

When Lance woke the next morning, he found one of his hands not only wrapped around Keith's back, but found that Keith had an arm wrapped tightly around one of his fingers as well.

So, yeah, Keith just kept setting the bar higher and higher for what would be considered adorable from each moment forward.

He was also happy to note that Keith felt warm, no shivering or red noses here this morning.

Keith stretched, his whole body tightening against Lance's chest as he did so, before he lifted his head to meet Lance's eyes.

"I don't want to get up," Lance murmured.

Keith poked him in the chest with a pointy finger.

"The snuggle struggle is real, Keith."

And once again, Keith did his best to hide his face under Lance's collar. And once again, Lance reminded him that he couldn't hide full body laughter when he had his full body lying on top of him. Lance was awake by that point, because adorable Keith required his full brain functioning in order to capture every detail. So when Keith climbed out of his shirt and hopped down to the bed, he pushed himself up and out of bed as well. He grabbed some clothes, but took a moment to smile as he watched Keith pull on his red sweater.

And once they were both dressed, Lance nodded towards the aircraft that currently sat on his desk. "You gonna fly today?"

Keith responded with a nod and bright, excited eyes, so Lance made it easier by placing the craft back on his mattress. Then he walked as Keith flew, and although he noted that Keith was flying next to him instead of speeding off ahead, he still missed his little shoulder devil.

And while he'd skipped dinner with the team the night before, Keith joined them for breakfast and even shot Lance a thankful smile when Lance presented him with a plate.

Keith flew off again as the rest of the team headed to the training deck, returning only for lunch before disappearing again. Lance decided that instead of pouting, he'd check in with Blue. And when he was finished, he walked over to the red lion's hangar.

Red sat with her particle barrier up, a rare occurrence when the lions were inside the castle, and Lance worriedly studied her. He was fairly certain he would've heard if she'd been damaged during that last mission, but he'd also been pretty preoccupied with her paladin over the past couple weeks.

"Hey, Red," he said, hopefully loud enough to be heard through the force field. "I just ran through some maintenance checks with Blue. Feel like letting me look you over?"

There was nothing for a moment as the stubborn lion seemed to consider the offer. Then the particle barrier dropped, and Lance offered her his best flirty grin.

"Aww, I knew you liked me."

He was stepping up into her mouth when she sent the particle barrier back up into place. "Feeling kind of picky about company right now, huh?" he asked quietly as he got to work checking over her controls. "He's fine, you know. I mean, he's teeny tiny, but he's not hurt. And we're working to reverse it."

He worked for a few more minutes in silence before he felt Red rumble around him with something that felt like gratitude.

"No thanking me," he muttered, although he wasn't willing to go as far as to inform _mama red lion_ that he was the reason her cub was currently the size of a space mouse.

He continued to run through the checklist, and was so caught up in it he almost missed Hunk calling him from outside the particle barrier.

"You want to let Hunk in, Red?"

But the particle barrier didn't budge. Lance wasn't about to try to talk her into it, none of them could talk Red into doing anything she didn't want to do, so he called out to Hunk that he'd be finished in a minute, before finally saying a goodbye to Red and leaving to join his friend.

"Man, I've tried every day since that mission to get her to let me in to run diagnostics," Hunk said, clearly exasperated. "What'd you say to convince her it was necessary?"

Lance shrugged and glanced back at Red as they turned out of the hangar. "Nothing special."

* * *

"I hope you don't mind, but I checked over some of Red's controls earlier." Whether he was watching Keith closely or not, it wasn't hard to notice how Keith's eyes dropped to the hands he had in his lap. "You know, after you were shrunk, I brought you back to the castle in Blue, so I don't think she understood what happened to you. I bet she'd like to see you."

There was a slight shake to Keith's head, barely enough to move any of his hair.

"Hey, now." Lance sat on his bed and poked a quick finger into Keith's side. "Think of how much she loves you. She'll probably love you even more when she sees you this tiny. You're going to be the cutest red paladin she's ever seen."

Keith shot Lance a glare, whether for the poke or for calling him cute again, Lance wasn't sure. But then he watched as Keith offered an exasperated shrug as his face dipped down again.

"You're still her paladin even if you can't fly her right now," Lance offered softly as he lowered himself to his pillow. "And she's worried about you."

Keith's head lifted then, and Lance could see the clear worry for Red in those large purple eyes.

"No worries, tonight," he said in response. "I told her you're okay. Maybe just go see her tomorrow."

Keith nodded and offered him a grateful smile, and yes, Lance was now well versed in what each of these Keith smiles meant. Lance pressed his lips together, not trusting himself to keep his thoughts about how goddamn cute Keith and his smiles were in the soft light of his bedroom.

Their discussion seemingly finished, Keith pushed himself to his feet and walked to the edge of his pillow bed, before pausing and meeting Lance's eye with a question in his own.

"Sure, dude," Lance whispered. "I'm all yours."

 _And if that wasn't the most honest thing he'd ever said to Keith._

There was a flash of relief on Keith's face right before he jumped over to Lance's shoulder and was soon tucked in under Lance's shirt collar again.

"You really like it there?" Lance asked as he bit back the nervous laugh threatening to escape his throat.

Keith snuggled in further against his chest, and Lance was suddenly outrageously aware that it was Keith's _hip_ that had applied pressure against him as Keith had wiggled in order to make his point. And that those were Keith's fingers splayed out over his skin. And maybe Keith was just trying to soak up his body heat so he didn't have to spend the night shivering, but last night's pure joy over their positions was quickly being replaced by something a little more heated tonight.

Lance reminded himself that regular-sized Keith would in no way be in his bed, sleeping on his freakin chest right now, and that — _the tight coiling deal in his belly could stop now, please_ — this was not the time for thinking about just how much he was personally enjoying all of this. He pressed his eyes shut and forced himself to think about something else. Like fighting Galra. Or his abuela. Or his abeula fighting Galra. She'd probably kick their ass. And then lecture them about sharing.

He breathed out a light laugh at that, and when Keith lifted his head in question, he only shook his head before letting a hand rest on Keith's small frame.

"Night, Keith."

He could actually feel Keith relax beneath his hand, and when he glanced back down at him, Keith quickly ducked his head. But Lance smiled and shut his own eyes again for sleep when he felt Keith pat his chest a few times.

* * *

"You're going to see Red while we train this morning?" Lance asked at the breakfast table the next morning. "I mean, in between whatever has been keeping you busy the past couple days?" It was as close as he'd gotten to mentioning Keith's time away from him, and in response he watched Keith side-eye him. And then smirk.

"What have you been doing?"

Keith's smirk grew.

"Really? You're not going to tell me?"

"He's not going to tell you because we can't understand what he says," Pidge deadpanned from across the table.

"I don't know," Coran said, "They seemed to have worked out a pretty good communication system in their time together. It's quite impressive."

"So you two are still doing okay?" Shiro asked.

Keith squeaked something at him in response, and Shiro's brows furrowed as if today would be the day he'd finally understand what Keith was saying before he helplessly turned his attention to Lance.

Lance shrugged back at Shiro. "I don't speak squeak, dude."

"Coran's right, though, you do seem to know what he's saying most of the time," Shiro observed.

"I told you, I'm a natural babysitter." He turned up the volume of his grin, doing his best to fight off the warmth he could feel on his face. He needed to divert everyone's attention away from _why_ he was so good at reading Keith's expressions. "See that face there?" He pointed a finger towards Keith, who was currently glaring at him for the babysitting jab. "That's his _I really think Lance deserves a day off_ face."

"Defenders of the Universe do not get days off."

"And that face," he continued as Keith turned away from him in favor of eating his breakfast, "is his _Lance deserves a raise_ —"

"We don't get paid."

Keith glanced up at him only long enough to roll his eyes.

"Oh man, Keith, I'm not sure. I think asking for an onboard masseuse is probably pushing it," Lance said in response, stroking a hand over his chin as if deep in thought.

He earned an actual grin from Shiro while Hunk chuckled beside him. Pidge looked amused as well before she turned her attention to Coran to ask an unrelated question. The conversation moved on to the schedule for that day, and a few moments later, Lance chanced another glance down at Keith.

Keith had finished eating, and sat leaning on the arms he had placed behind himself. Giving him nothing else to do, apparently, but stare up at Lance.

Stare up at him with another one of those stupid cute smiles on his face.

* * *

When Keith flew off again, Lance followed Pidge back to her work station. He realized he hadn't seen her much outside of meals and training lately, and as he watched how slowly she moved as they walked, he regretted not checking in on her sooner.

"Don't," she warned as soon as she was seated. Lance followed the trail of wires that lead from her computer to a small device on the table top, and immediately realized he was looking at Haggar's shrinking device. At the time, he couldn't have told the others where the beam had come from, but now he immediately recognized the small triangular chunk of metal as having been attached to the wall inside that Galra base.

"Don't _what_? I didn't touch anything."

"No, well, _yes_ , don't touch anything. But I meant _don't_ as in I don't need a lecture right now about how important it is that I get this right."

"Pidge —"

"I realize your Keith crush has you feeling majorly protective right now, but —"

"Wait, Pidge—"

"But I care about him too, okay? And I am doing my best here to reverse this damn thing. I think I've almost got it, in fact."

Lance watched her release a deep breath and stare hard at her computer screen. Then he walked around the table and pulled one unmoving hand off the keyboard and gave it a squeeze.

"Hey, I wasn't coming in here to lecture," he said softly. "I know you're working hard on this, its pretty damn clear by all those unsightly bags under your eyes."

A frustrated noise left her as she yanked her hand back, but she still lifted her head and met Lance's face with a small, half smile.

"It's not fair for you to have all this pressure on just you alone. I'm not saying you can't do it, but we'll all sit in here and help if you need us to."

Pidge studied his face for a moment, and when she deemed him sincere, her face softened. Then she turned back to her computer and he watched her eyes refocus on the screen as her hands began to fly over the keyboard.

"What can I do to help?"

"First, don't invite everyone in here to sit. It would drive me crazy. And second, if you really want to help, you can start by going back to the other side of the table without touching anything."

Lance sputtered with a hand thrown over his heart in mock offense, but still returned to stand in the safe zone away from her network of the wires. He ran a finger down the length of a wire just to earn a glare before he spoke again.

"Keith crush, huh. You been talking to Hunk?"

"No, I have eyes."

Lance hummed to himself. "Do you think Keith has eyes?"

Pidge scoffed. "No, pretty sure he has no idea."

Lance breathed a small sigh, not sure if it was in relief or not, especially when he thought of Keith sleeping on his chest the past couple nights. And how much he was going to miss it when Keith no longer needed to depend on him for certain things, like body heat. And there were those warring emotions again, part joy for his current situation with Keith and part guilt for enjoying any part of an experience Keith surely hated.

"You know," Pidge said after a few moments of quiet, and when Lance looked up he was surprised to see her looking at him instead of her computer screen, "if I'm not allowed to stress out by myself about reversing this technology, you're not allowed to be the only one who feels guilty he got shrunk in the first place."

"Um, yes I can? That beam was supposed to hit me."

"Sure, but aside from everything Shiro would say right now about us being a team and having each other's backs, Keith is the one who chose to take the hit for you. _His choice_ ," she added with a small grin. "And he may be oblivious about your Keith crush, but he still woke up from unconsciousness at the sound of _your_ voice. And he does willingly ride around on your dumb shoulder. Not to mention how he agreed to sleep in your room every night. And," — she lifted a hand to stop whatever Lance was going to say — "we all know how _easy_ it is to get Keith to do something he doesn't want to do."

Lance leaned one of his hips against the table as Pidge's words let the happiness outweigh the guilt for this moment.

"Fair points."

Pidge laughed, because _yes, of course they were_ , before she shooed him away from her workstation entirely.

He was winding around the hallway that circled all of the lions' hangars when an unexpected and disturbing sight had him stopping in his tracks. A moment went by as he tried to piece together what he was seeing - Keith's hovercraft on the ground, tilted unnaturally with a wing bent beyond repair - before a chill ran through him with the implications, especially since Keith was nowhere to be seen.

It was a long empty hallway but he yelled Keith's name anyway as he took off running. Keith didn't answer, not that Lance expected to be able to hear a response from Keith, but thankfully someone did answer him, and he picked up the pace and sprinted towards the red lion's hangar when he heard her loud roar. He stopped short when he found Red on all fours, still growling, but with her particle barrier down.

"Red?" he yelled up at her. "Where's Keith?"

Red lowered herself to the ground so that when her jaw opened, Lance could dash immediately inside. He had images of Keith wounded from the plane crash, stupidly crawling to his lion to hide his injuries from the others.

So he was caught off guard when he almost ran right into a Blade of Marmora soldier.

"What are you doing inside the red lion?" Lance asked, immediately suspicious. If Red wouldn't let Hunk in the day before, there was no way she'd let a rando non-Team Voltron person inside. Lance moved to block Prorax's exit, because the only explanation was that Red had scooped the guy up on purpose, to contain him for some reason.

"Move, paladin. I am on official business."

"For who?" Lance growled. And then he saw it, one of the pouches hanging from this guy's belt moved, and Lance realized in horror that _Keith_ must be inside that bag. This asshole was apparently trying to abduct tiny Keith.

" _Fahk_!" Prorax suddenly growled, and if this was a different situation, Lance might've grinned when he saw Keith's tiny bayard swiping its way through the bag in order to stab his captor in his side. And while it wasn't doing the amount of damage Keith was used to, the tiny sword was enough of an annoyance for Prorax to smack at the bag as he cursed again, knocking the pouch off his belt to land on the floor with a small thud.

Lance heard Red's roars increase in volume and he was right there with her, fury leading him to throw himself at Prorax before he could escape. And as he grappled the well-trained soldier to the floor, he had never been more grateful for all those hand-to-hand sessions he'd endured with Keith and Shiro. Although Prorax was stronger than he was, Lance soon realized he was faster, which gave him an advantage as he maneuvered and even squirmed his way out of each hold the other tried to pin him in, while also managing to elbow and strike the guy as many times as possible.

He was so busy fighting that he almost didn't notice Keith escaping the small bag he'd been holed up in, the sight giving him more relief than he knew what to do with as he saw that Keith didn't have any injuries that he could see. Keith stared wide-eyed at them for a moment, clearly frustrated that he couldn't join in and help Lance.

Lance went back to trying to keep this guy on the floor, and when he glanced back to where Keith had been standing before, he found that Keith had moved. And not just moved, but climbed up one of the walls until he leapt over to the handle of a compartment. His weight on the handle was enough to swing the door open. Keith hung in the air for a moment before he began to swing himself back and forth a few times until he gained the momentum he needed to throw himself into the compartment.

And fighting or not, Lance did grin when he saw what Keith pushed out of the compartment. Then Keith slid back to the ground and began shoving the item across the floor.

Lance pushed himself away from Prorax, needing space between them so that the other might charge him. And when he predictably did just that, Lance used that display of force against him, sliding to the side so that he could twist and land on Prorax's back as he hit the floor. Then he forced one of the soldier's hands up towards where Keith stood waiting.

Keith had the handcuffs — the same ones that had once trapped Lance to a tree — waiting around the base of Red's pilot seat, and he snapped one end around the wrist that Lance shoved in his direction. But then he was forced to jump backwards as Prorax's free hand swiped for him.

"No!" Lance scrambled forward, practically landing on the guy's head so that he could throw as much weight as possible down on the guy's arms — this wouldn't work if his hands moved away from the base of the pilot's seat. He growled as he forced Prorax's free hand to hold still long enough for Keith to jump back in action and snap the other handcuff around the opposite wrist.

And even though he was technically secured, Prorax continued to squirm under Lance, who shoved more of his weight into one of his knees. The one currently pressed to one of Prorax's temples.

He looked up and met Keith's eyes. "Are you okay?" he panted out, still feeling furious and running on adrenaline.

Keith's eyes looked larger than ever, and his hair was disheveled, likely from being stuck _inside a bag_ , but he nodded back to Lance, and even offered a small smile.

"What is going on in here — _Lance_?" Shiro's voice came from behind him, and he twisted, to see not only Shiro, but Allura and Coran with him. Apparently Red's continuous roars had finally alerted some of the others that there was trouble.

Lance moved off the Blade soldier — now likely a _former_ Blade soldier — and gently picked Keith up before moving away from the handcuffed guy's kicky legs.

* * *

"This is a terrible betrayal," Allura said, her tone icy. She hadn't wanted to trust the BoM in the first place, but didn't appear to have any satisfaction with being proven partially right.

"I understand," Kolivan said with a sigh, stuck in a war that had been handed to him. And after all the precautions they took to keep themselves a secret from Zarkon's Galra, they apparently had to worry about traitors within their own ranks.

They hadn't heard the full story yet, since Keith couldn't talk and Prorax was refusing to answer their questions. But from what they'd determined, after reviewing the records of the spacecraft Prorax had ready for departure, Prorax was actually on Team Haggar, and had planned on snatching Keith, sneaking off the castle, and likely turning Keith over to her.

"If he had gotten off this ship with Keith —" Lance stopped when he felt one of Hunk's hands land on his shoulder in comfort. His own hands were shaking, something Keith was clearly aware of as he wrapped his arms around a couple of Lance's fingers. The pseudo-hug was enough to pull a smile from Lance down in his direction as he turned away from the others and decided to just get Keith out of there.

He went straight to his own room and collapsed on his bed with Keith still cradled to his chest. His mind was racing with different scenarios of how that entire fight could've gone. If he hadn't been able to contain that guy, if Prorax had somehow made it to his escape craft with tiny Keith still trapped in his dumb belt pouch, if Keith had been handed over to Haggar, if they never saw Keith again because —

Keith's hand smoothing back and forth over one of his hands jerked him out of his thoughts and he turned his attention to Keith, belatedly asking him if was _really_ okay.

Keith nodded back to him, as he continued to look worried about Lance. He lifted one small pointy finger in Lance's direction, and Lance huffed out an unamused chuckle as he nodded.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

At that, Keith crawled out from under Lance's hands only so he could walk up his chest and settle in under Lance's shirt collar.

"I'm glad you're safe," Lance whispered. He let one of his hands rest on top of Keith and indulged himself by rubbing a finger up and down Keith's back. He felt Keith relax beneath the light massage, and kept it up until his own heartbeat had slowed enough to allow his eyes to close for sleep.

* * *

He woke to something poking him in the cheek, which he immediately tried to swipe away, until he remember that it was likely Keith trying to get his attention.

"What?" he groaned out, his voice thick with sleep.

When there was no response, because his brain was slow to remind him that the only verbal response Keith could provide would sound like an incomprehensible squeak, he slid his eyes open and found Keith standing on his shoulder, staring back at him with his mouth slightly open and his face slightly pink.

"Keith?" he asked. His mind went straight to worried about the red paladin, as the events from the previous day — or just that morning? How long had they been asleep? — came rushing back, and he wondered if Keith suddenly had aches that needed to be tended to.

But then Keith pointed to his bedroom door, and he realized that Keith was only alerting him to the fact that someone was outside knocking.

"Kay," he said as Keith hopped off his shoulder, allowing him to stand and open the door.

"Pidge did it!" Hunk said with a bright smile. He looked around Lance to where Keith stood on the bed. "She reversed the tech!"

Lance turned and met Keith's eye. He thought he'd dread this moment, and while part of him was feeling slightly disappointed that all their time together was coming to an end, he'd also seen some of the dangers smol Keith faced, and that more reasonable side of himself was definitely winning out right now.

"Ready to be big again?" he asked Keith.

"You need to put your paladin armor back on," Hunk stated before Keith could respond. "Here, I found your helmet where the plane crashed. You'll have to fill us in later whether that was a plane malfunction or you trying to escape while being attacked, huh?"

Keith nodded as his helmet was passed to him, then Lance and Hunk stood out in the hallway to give him a few minutes of privacy to get dressed.

"Last shoulder ride," Lance announced, doing his best to sound cheery as he lifted Keith to his shoulder and walked with Hunk.

They found everyone in the med bay, _just in case_ , Coran had advised, and Lance refused to let Keith leave his shoulder until Pidge had assured him that she and Hunk had already tested the device out on a few items.

"I didn't destroy the shrinking mechanism to create this," Pidge said, "so we shrunk a few things, and then basically flipped a switch to reverse it."

"Living things?" Lance asked.

"Yes," Shiro responded. He'd been present for most of the trial runs, and while he wouldn't allow Pidge or Hunk to use it on themselves, they had used it on some plants and a few pieces of fruit.

Lance turned to Keith and raised an eyebrow. Keith was biting his lower lip, and looked more nervous than Lance would've liked, but he still nodded back up to him. So with a small sigh, Lance pulled Keith from his shoulder and set him down on the exam table.

Pidge got into position in front of him, the small device that started the whole mess in her hands and pointed towards Keith.

"Ready, set, _grow_ ," Pidge whispered as a bright blue beam hit Keith directly.

Most everyone in the room shielded their eyes from the bright light, but Lance just squinted, unwilling to take his eyes off Keith, allowing him to watch firsthand as Keith grew and grew until he was back to his original size, his long legs hanging off the side of the table and his hands reaching up to pull off his helmet so he could rub his fingers against his temples.

Then his head lifted and his eyes, as large as ever, glanced around at each of them slowly.

"Need you to say something, bud," Shiro said.

Keith cleared his throat, the first sound he'd made in weeks that didn't sound like a squeak. "I'm going to miss flying that little hovercraft around the castle."

Lance laughed out his relief, as did everyone else in the room, before he lunged forward and wrapped Keith in a hug. He felt Hunk's arms around them next, followed by Pidge edging her way in, and then Shiro was there, squeezing all of them.

* * *

"Is that the sweater I knit you?"

Keith ducked his head for a moment before he met Lance's eyes through his bangs and nodded. After their group hug in the med bay, Coran had shooed everyone out to give Keith some privacy so he could run some scans. Lance had been trying to entertain himself in the main lounge when Keith had come in, wearing a familiar red article of clothing.

"I liked it, so I kept it on under my armor when Pidge —" he waved a hand in the air, looking for the right words, and Lance couldn't help the warmth that filled his chest when he saw how the length of the sweater sleeves were still just a tad too long.

"Deshrunkified you?"

"Deshrunki—" Keith huffed out a small laugh while rolling his eyes. "Yeah, that. Dork."

Lance only grinned in response. "Well, I'm glad you liked it enough to want to keep it."

He set the tablet he'd been reading aside, and when he looked back up at Keith, he found him still standing awkwardly in the doorway.

"You want to watch a movie or something?" he asked, trying to beckon Keith all the way into the room.

"Actually, I wanted to see if you wanted to come with me?"

"Yeah, sure."

He tried to keep the surprise and excitement on his face to a minimum as he responded with absolutely no hesitation and then fell in step beside Keith down the hallway. He shoved his hands in his pockets just to have something to do with them, and kept glancing over at Keith's face. Keith met his eyes a few times, but he didn't say anything about where they were going. And since he actually looked a little nervous, Lance decided not to ask any questions.

They made a few turns down different hallways, until they'd reach a region of the castle that Lance was sure he'd never been in before. Finally, Keith led them into a room and activated the lights.

"Whoa." Lance stopped in his tracks as he stared at the floor to ceiling window that made up one wall, giving them a view of the stars the castle was currently traveling through.

And although the sight was impressive, the room was rather small overall, likely the reason the team didn't use it, if anyone even knew about it. There wasn't even room for proper furniture, and Lance focused on the blankets and pillows that had been left on the floor.

"What is this?"

Keith moved past him and had a seat on the floor in the nest of bedding. Then he began to lift a blanket off something in the center of the floor. He actually looked like he was revealing a surprise, and Lance moved closer to get a better look.

And when he saw what it was, he sank to his knees across from Keith and sucked in a quick breath of air.

"Um, I know I kinda ditched you for a couple days when Hunk gave me that hovercraft," Keith said, cute as hell as he nervously watched Lance. "But you said you missed —"

"You made me a Monopoly game." Lance cut him off, his voice tight, but he desperately needed to say it out loud as he stared down at the game board. The handwritten names of each property and railroad were a little messy, but each section was painted the appropriate color, and handmade or not, he'd recognize this throwback to his childhood anywhere.

"Allura had an actual thimble, although I'm not sure she knows we're borrowing it. _Does she_?"

Keith turned to the side as he asked the question, and Lance noticed the four mice peeking out from behind a blanket, also seemingly excited to see his reaction to this wonderful gift.

They squeaked in reply to Keith and he only shook his head and chuckled. "Those four were a huge help in all this. Led me to this room, which I figured was a safe place to keep everything. Showed me where the paint was. Helped me collect stuff around the castle. Oh, I also found this button, which I'll use to play, and if the others want to join in, maybe we can ask them to bring their own player pieces. And we have to be a little creative with the houses and hotels, but I also _borrowed_ some money from Coran, and —"

Lance leaned over the game and pulled Keith into a tight hug. His eyes stung as he thought about the work Keith had put into making him a little something that looked like home. A little something that felt like family.

"Thank you, Keith."

"The mice helped," Keith said on an exhale as Lance continued to squeeze the living daylights out of him.

Lance laughed wetly and released Keith so he could turn to his tiny helpers. "And thank you as well, then." He stared down at the board again and shook his head in disbelief. "How did you not come back to me covered in paint at night?"

Keith laughed a little at that. "Did you know Hunk built the mice a shower system?"

"Of course he did," Lance said, laughing in return. "So, are you guys going to play with us?" he asked the mice. "Maybe one of you could be the banker since I have no idea how this Altean money works."

There was more squeaking as Plachu sat himself next to the pile of money and the other three sat themselves around the game board, interested in watching what it was the paladins intended to do with this strange collection of items.

"I asked Coran this morning if Alteans had dice, and he gave me these," Keith said, pulling the strange 8-sided pieces out of his pocket in order to hand them over to Lance.

Lance laughed again, and wiped his eyes quickly, still a little shocked that he was about to play Monopoly. He took the strange dice to inspect and then shrugged with another grin. He rolled them across the board, and his smile only grew at the familiar sound.

* * *

"Nope, that's a hotel, you owe me more than that."

"Since when do the little space rocks count as hotels?"

"Since I paid the money to upgrade it. Don't judge the outside. The inside has marble floors and a hot tub in every room."

"Quiznak," Lance groaned as he pushed more money in Keith's direction.

He still wasn't sure if they were even using the Altean currency correctly. And Keith was most definitely kicking his ass in this game. And the mice had ditched them about a varga ago to probably find something more interesting to watch. But Keith was also grinning at him from across the board. _While wearing the sweater Lance had knit for him_. And he kept having to push the sleeves up a bit when he moved his button game piece around the board, _because sweater paws_. So Lance wasn't about to complain about anything.

He watched Keith roll and then move his button 5 places, landing the jerk on an open property.

"Looks like your hotel rent just bought me a railroad," Keith said smugly with a grin in Lance's direction.

And Lance couldn't even be upset. Not with Keith still grinning at him like that.

"It must be such a relief to be able to be understood again," Lance said as he rolled the dice for his own turn.

"I don't know, you always seemed to understand me pretty well."

"Well, that's because I'm a —"

"No," Keith cut him off. "Don't even say it."

Lance stayed quiet about what an awesome babysitter he was, and let the wry grin on his face speak for him.

" _Actually_ , I was just going to say that it's because we make a good team."

"That is _not_ what you were going to say," Keith said, eyes narrowed in response to Lance's teasing grin. But then his face smoothed out and he ducked his eyes to the game board. "But, yeah, we do make a good team." He forced his eyes back up to Lance's again before continuing. "I wanted to thank you for helping me out. And for stopping Prorax."

"It was my fault you were shrunk," Lance replied, voice low as he fiddled with the dice on the board.

"Lance, _you_ didn't shrink me."

Keith's voice had an edge of frustration in it that had Lance meeting his eyes again, and he couldn't help but realize just how much he'd missed Keith's voice over the past few weeks as Keith continued to talk now.

"And while I was pretty upset about being shrunk at the start of this, I wasn't upset with you. You made this whole ordeal so much easier on me, Lance. Fun even. So, thank you."

And with that, the last fragments of the guilt Lance had been carrying about being the reason Keith had been shrunk wisped away from him.

"You're welcome, Keith," he responded sincerely. "Although, listen, if I'd lost the ability to talk, I'd probably talk for the next phoeb solid —" a chuckle escaped Keith that Lance was choosing to ignore, "so you have my full permission to just talk at me all night. I'll even sit and be quiet," he added with a teasing grin. "I mean, I'll answer you and stuff, but —"

Keith kissed him. So quickly that Lance hadn't even noticed him leaning across the board. And it was just a moment of firm pressure against his lips before Keith separated them, backing up only far enough so that their lips were no longer touching.

"Fine," Keith whispered out, and if Lance listened hard enough, he could hear Keith's heart beating too fast for a change. "Answer me, then."

"Oh sweet _quiznak_ , yes, Keith, come here."

But instead of pulling Keith towards him, Lance pushed himself over the game board and practically climbed into Keith's lap so that their lips meet again. Keith only chuckled in surprise as he fell backward under Lance's enthusiastic response. But he adapted quickly and pulled Lance down with him, allowing their mouths to continue working together.

"Sorry," Lance whispered out between kisses, although his remorse for knocking Keith over didn't go far enough to actually move off of him. Instead, he managed to only shift more of his weight onto Keith as he squeezed a hand around one of Keith's strong arms and moved his mouth down to Keith's jaw.

"No problem," Keith groaned in response and shifted his head, allowing Lance's mouth the space he needed to reach his neck. One of his hands twisted itself in Lance's soft hair while the other smoothed down his back. "Like you here," Keith whispered. "You're so warm."

"You have my full permission to use me for my body heat whenever you want," Lance murmured, and then he smiled into Keith's neck when he heard Keith actually laugh in response. He lifted his head in order to see the smile on Keith's face, and leaned into Keith's hand when it moved from his hair to rub a thumb over his cheek.

"Only you would make me laugh while we're in the middle of kissing," Keith said, voice full of affection.

Lance had been watching Keith's smiles over the past few weeks, studying them and soaking them up when they were meant for him. But now he was caught up in Keith's eyes, in the fondness and _trust_ he could see directed straight at him from those purple depths. And once again the good stuff — that pure joy — filled his chest as he leaned down to kiss Keith, a kiss made slightly awkward since he couldn't tone down his wide smile to move his mouth properly. Keith didn't seem to mind, though, as he hummed happily beneath him, fingers on the move again as they moved to sift through the hair at the nape of his neck.

"I'm gonna miss bite-sized Keith," Lance whispered, "but I could get used to this."

"I don't know," Keith sighed as the arm wrapped around Lance's waist tightened. "I'm not likely to complain if you bite me."

A laugh escaped from his throat as he nuzzled back into Keith's neck and took an exploratory nip of the skin there.

" _Lance_."

Lance gasped himself when he heard Keith utter out his name like that. Like his voice couldn't decide whether to laugh or groan in pleasure. And as he kissed his way back up Keith's neck and over his jaw, he decided he never wanted Keith to have to decide. He pressed his forehead to Keith's, and all that joy, and warmth, and happiness he equated with Keith filled his chest.

"Keith," he whispered in return before kissing him again. He squeezed him tighter and let himself be thankful for Keith's health, and Keith's safety, and just _Keith_.

* * *

 **A/N:** In which I wrote an entire story with Keith as a main and very important character, and he barely said anything at all.

Although I've had this story labeled as "Smol Keith" in my writing folder, I decided for the actual title to twist William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' quote — "Though she be but little, she is fierce!"

Also, I need to send very sincere thanks to mytay and suitboxers, both of whom agreed that smol Keith would be adorable and that I should definitely pursue such an idea for a story. Plus, suitboxers came up with that alien cuss word (because we agreed that it would be funny if the "F" word was somehow universal). And mytay was nice enough to read through an early draft of this and assure me that I was on the right track.

You can also find me on tumblr under username reader115 :)

 **Fanart update:** PaintTheWorldMad created some _adorable_ smol Keith fanart for this story! I can't link it from this site, but the link is included in the end notes on the AO3 site, or you can search my Tumblr under the "smol Keith" tag!

 **Author note update** : When I first sent this to mytay to read over, one of the first things she suggested was to follow-up with the story from smol Keith's perspective. I didn't mention this possibility in my author notes before in case I decided not to, but since there have been requests, maybe hit the "follow" button if you're interested, that way if I do write it (which will be after the Keith zine project I just signed onto) you'll be notified. And thank you all for the interest! It's certainly a motivating factor for the project!


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